NBA: Weight is over for Boston Celtics' Jared Sullinger

When Celtics coach Doc Rivers watched Jared Sullinger play AAU ball few years ago, he loved his rebounding skills, but thought he was fat. That doesn't bother the Celtics rookie.

“I was fat when I was a kid,” Sullinger admitted.

Sullinger used his weight to overpower his opponents.

“It was just my way of throwing people around,” he said. “I was just being a big bully. When I went to college, I realized I couldn't do that anymore. I had to get in shape and still be able to keep my strength. Then here (in Boston), I've got to stay in shape in order to play all these games. I finally shed all the weight.”

Sullinger has been listed as high as 280 pounds, but he said he's down to 267 or 268.

Just three years ago, Sullinger averaged 24.5 points and 11.7 rebounds to earn the James Naismith Award as the nation's top high school player and led Northland High of Columbus, Ohio, to the No. 1 ranking in the country.

Sullinger remained in Columbus and became a two-time All-American at Ohio State. He led the Buckeyes to the Sweet Sixteen as a freshman and a Final Four berth as a sophomore, the latter with a victory over Syracuse at the Garden in the East Regional final.

Sullinger fell out of the NBA lottery when back issues were discovered at a pre-draft camp in Chicago and the Celtics took him with the 21st pick last June. Sullinger said his back feels fine.

“I'm good. No problems,” he said. “Everybody expected me to go down. I've played every game. So booyah.”

Sullinger, who is only 20, isn't merely playing, he's playing a key role. There's been a lot of talk about how the Celtics fall apart when Kevin Garnett rests on the bench, but Sullinger leads the team with a plus-minus ratio of a plus 75. Garnett is second with a plus 60.

Sullinger can't jump very high and he's at least an inch shorter than his listed height of 6 feet, 9 inches, but he relies on great hands, strength, timing and positioning to rebound. His 16 rebounds against Phoenix on Wednesday were the most by a Celtic this season, the most by a Boston rookie since Ryan Gomes pulled down 17 at Portland on Feb. 24, 2006, and the most by a Boston rookie who didn't start since Rick Robey grabbed 17 against the Sixers on March 7, 1979.

Over his last 10 games, Sullinger has averaged 9.5 points and 8.2 rebounds while shooting 57.6 percent. He's also turned over the ball only seven times during that span, quite an accomplishment for a rookie.

Overall, he's averaging 6.1 points and his 5.9 rebounds rank second on the team to Garnett even though he's playing only 19-1/2 minutes a game, largely because of foul trouble. Sullinger has fouled out of five of his last 11 games and admitted Friday fouling is his “M.O.” with referees.

Sullinger's demeanor is the opposite of teammate Rajon Rondo's. Nothing seems to bother him, not even when an opponent tries to unnerve him with trash talk.

“Don't give a reaction,” he said. “You laugh. It is what it is. It goes through one ear and out the other. You've just got to keep playing.”

Opponents hate it when Sullinger laughs at their trash talk.

“It irritates everybody,” he said. “I don't care who you are, especially when you're a vet. When you're a vet, you're used to getting under people's skin and (when) you see somebody laugh in your face, especially a rookie, that's a slap in their face. One of my roles is being a nagging rookie.”

More importantly, he's an effective rebounder for a team that ranks last in the NBA in rebounding. Sullinger said practicing against Garnett, Brandon Bass, Chris Wilcox and Jeff Green helps him.

“That's where it's coming from,” he said. “I'm nothing without these guys. These guys are molding me into the player I am today.”

He was just being modest with that comment. Sullinger molded himself.

“First off is effort,” Garnett said. “Anytime you're playing defense, anytime you're stealing the ball, rebounding, all that's effort. Obviously his timing, body positioning. He has the perfect body for rebounding. He can take the pounding and he can bump a little bit and he has great anticipation when it comes to the ball, and he has great hands. Put all that in the pot, you got Jared Sullinger. That's what makes him one of the up and coming great rebounders of our game.”

Even though Rivers thought Sullinger was slow and fat, he dominated the AAU team of Rivers' son, Austin. Even after Sullinger contributed 16 points and seven rebounds to a Christmas Day victory at Brooklyn, Rivers gave him a backhanded compliment, saying he didn't look like a rookie, but he looked like “big, fat guy playing basketball.”

“And now,” Rivers said Wednesday, “I realize he's not slow and he's actually not fat. He's just … round. But he has great feet, he really does. And you don't appreciate that for a while when you watch him. He's quick and he has great feet.”

Rivers will coach against his son, Austin, when the New Orleans Hornets visit the Garden on Wednesday. It will be only the fourth time in NBA history that a father will coach against his son.

Rivers can only hope that things turn out better than they did the first time a father coached against his son. New Orleans Jazz coach Butch van Breda Kolff was ejected for arguing a call and his son, Jan, fouled out when the Jazz beat the Nets, 110-99, on Nov. 9, 1976. Jan finished with six points.

Mike Dunleavy Sr. coached against his son, Mike Jr., for the first of many times on Nov. 15, 2003, when the father's Clippers beat the son's Warriors, 104-98. Mike Jr. made only 2 of 10 shots and scored seven points. Current Celtic Chris Wilcox led the Clippers with 21 points and nine rebounds in that game.

Denver's George Karl coached against his son, Coby, on April 23, 2008, in Game 2 of the opening round of the playoffs. Coby played two scoreless minutes in a 122-107 Lakers' victory.

So the fathers are 2-1 in the first times they've coached against their sons.

No father has ever coached his son in an NBA game, but the Karls came the closest. Denver signed Coby in April of 2010, but he never played in a game and George was sidelined with throat cancer.

The Hornets drafted Austin out of Duke with the 10th pick last June. The 6-foot-4 guard has shot only 32.9 percent from the field and 56.5 percent from the foul line. He's averaging 6.5 points. Over his last seven games, he's made just 3 of 21 field goal attempts and 1 of 6 free throws. On Dec. 12 against Minnesota, Rivers scored 27 points and made five of six 3-point attempts, but since then he's only 4 of 20 from beyond the arc. Friday night, he played only 4-1/2 minutes off the bench.

It will be interesting to see if Rivers has Avery Bradley guard his son or if he takes it easy on him.

In his one season at Duke, Austin became only the third freshman to lead the Blue Devils in scoring (15.5). At Winter Park High School in Florida, Austin was named high school player of the year by Naismith, Parade Magazine, Morgan Wootten, USA Today and MaxPreps.

For the second time in five years, former Assumption College star Jim Boylan has been promoted to replace good friend Scott Skiles as a head coach of an NBA team.

The Milwaukee Bucks fired Skiles on Monday after the team had lost four in a row to fall to 16-16. Skiles already wasn't happy that his contract hadn't been extended beyond this season.

Boylan, a long-time assistant under Skiles, took over as head coach of the Bucks, inserted forward Ersan Ilyasova into the starting lineup and won two of his first three games. In December of 2007, the Chicago Bulls fired Skiles after a 9-17 start and promoted Boylan from assistant to head coach. Boylan was let go after coaching the Bulls to a 24-32 record for the rest of the season and he became an assistant under Skiles in Milwaukee the following year.

Boylan became a legend in Milwaukee when he started at point guard and helped Marquette win the 1977 NCAA championship. He transferred to Marquette after starting at point guard for Assumption's NCAA Division 2 Final Four teams in 1974 and 1975.

Boylan won't get a chance to coach against the Celtics this season because the Bucks don't play them again. Milwaukee went 3-1 against the Celtics, winning the season series for the first time since 2005-06 season.

Contact Bill Doyle at wdoyle@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillDoyle15.